Bagheera dared not follow, shouting: “He has noticed us! Bagheera has noticed
us. All the Jungle-People admire us for our skill and our cunning.” Then they
began their flight; and the flight of the Monkey-People through tree-land is one
of the things nobody can describe. They have their regular roads and crossroads,
up hills and down hills, all laid out from fifty to seventy or a hundred feet above
ground, and by these they can travel even at night if necessary. Two of the
strongest monkeys caught Mowgli under the arms and swung off with him
through the treetops, twenty feet at a bound. Had they been alone they could
have gone twice as fast, but the boy’s weight held them back. Sick and giddy as
Mowgli was he could not help enjoying the wild rush, though the glimpses of
earth far down below frightened him, and the terrible check and jerk at the end
of the swing over nothing but empty air brought his heart between his teeth. His
escort would rush him up a tree till he felt the thinnest topmost branches crackle
and bend under them, and then with a cough and a whoop would fling
themselves into the air outward and downward, and bring up, hanging by their
hands or their feet to the lower limbs of the next tree. Sometimes he could see
for miles and miles across the still green jungle, as a man on the top of a mast
can see for miles across the sea, and then the branches and leaves would lash
him across the face, and he and his two guards would be almost down to earth
again. So, bounding and crashing and whooping and yelling, the whole tribe of
Bandar-log swept along the tree-roads with Mowgli their prisoner.
For a time he was afraid of being dropped. Then he grew angry but knew
better than to struggle, and then he began to think. The first thing was to send
back word to Baloo and Bagheera, for, at the pace the monkeys were going, he
knew his friends would be left far behind. It was useless to look down, for he
could only see the topsides of the branches, so he stared upward and saw, far
away in the blue, Rann the Kite balancing and wheeling as he kept watch over
the jungle waiting for things to die. Rann saw that the monkeys were carrying
something, and dropped a few hundred yards to find out whether their load was
good to eat. He whistled with surprise when he saw Mowgli being dragged up to
a treetop and heard him give the Kite call for—“We be of one blood, thou and
I.” The waves of the branches closed over the boy, but Rann balanced away to
the next tree in time to see the little brown face come up again. “Mark my trail!”
Mowgli shouted. “Tell Baloo of the Seeonee Pack and Bagheera of the Council
Rock.”
“In whose name, Brother?” Rann had never seen Mowgli before, though of
course he had heard of him.
“Mowgli, the Frog. Man-cub they call me! Mark my trail!”